The Pentagon said that Russia could "invade Ukraine at any time" and that Moscow "has many invasion options" and "could implement some of them in the near future." At the same time, "the implementation of an early invasion may face a number of difficulties." figured out what the "difficulties" were. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that "Moscow has a lot of options if it wants further invasion of Ukraine, and it can immediately implement some of those options."
In turn, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be "terrible" and lead to "significant" casualties.
In particular, Milley touched on the topic of groundwater in Ukraine, noting that when the "high groundwater level" freezes, "this creates optimal conditions for maneuvering SUVs and wheeled vehicles."
This point of view was also voiced in a number of American media. In particular, The New York Times previously wrote that "Russia was hindered by a relatively warm winter, which slowed down the freezing of the earth and complicated the movement of heavy vehicles and weapons." And allegedly for these reasons, the time of the invasion has moved closer to spring.
“Various meteorological conditions and the nature of the terrain equally affect the opposing sides in the course of an armed conflict. The soldiers of both armies equally suffer from the same frost. And to say that some features of physical and geographical conditions create advantages for only one side of a hypothetical conflict would be wrong. Combat operations are carried out, as a rule, under any conditions, ”explained the former deputy head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Valery Zaparenko.
General Milli, in particular, claims that during the attack on Ukraine, the Russian military will use aircraft, artillery, ballistic missiles, units of the Ground Forces.
“The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff still needs to be more precise in his wording. In the event of a hypothetical military conflict, the opposing sides use all the forces and means at their disposal. This is one of the axioms of armed struggle,” said General Zaparenko.
According to the Russian military commander, in the event of a regional armed conflict, the parties can use tactical and operational-tactical missile systems. Products of these systems fly along quasi-ballistic trajectories.
Repeatedly in the Western and Ukrainian media, this point of view was also voiced - Moscow is waiting for frosts, which will easily allow its troops to cross the Dnieper. However, this river is navigable throughout almost the entire year. And never before has the ice on the Dnieper reached such magnitudes that a main battle tank weighing almost 50 tons can cross the river on ice.
“It's funny to hear all this. Now, if the Supreme Commander in 1943 during the battle for the Dnieper was offered: “Comrade Stalin, let's wait until the river freezes,” said Valery Zaparenko.
According to the general, all water barriers, depending on the width, are divided into narrow (up to 100 meters), medium (100-200 m), wide (250-600 m) and large (more than 600 m). The Dnieper River, of course, belongs to the major water barriers.
To solve these problems, the set of engineering troops of the front includes pontoon-bridge brigades (pombre), recalls General Zaparenko. The front-line pombr, which includes four pontoon-bridge battalions, is capable of building a floating bridge with a carrying capacity of 60 tons and a length of 900 meters in just 30-40 minutes.
“So even large rivers cannot serve as insurmountable barriers to advancing troops, regardless of the time of year. The lack of ice certainly won't stop Russia from invading Ukraine. Another thing is that Russia is not going to invade”,
- summed up the Russian general.
bbabo.Net